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Convicted murderer accused of illegally shipping pain pills from China to Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — A convicted murderer is accused of using the U.S. Postal Service to illegally push pain pills.

Edwin Blackwelder is now facing 11 felony charges after investigators tracked down the intended recipient of those shipments in Central Florida.

The operation was shut down after some shipments from China were blocked at the San Francisco International Airport.

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A 10-page report from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation details the case against Blackwelder.

Three times in April, Customs and Border Protection officers at the airport in San Francisco intercepted packages with white pills  "identified as tramadol,"… "a controlled substance" that "cannot be possessed without a valid prescription," according to reports.

The packages from China were addressed to a home in Apopka and a P.O. box in Longwood.

Blackwelder was convicted in 1981 of the stabbing and beating death of a man in Polk County and was released in 2002.

Seventeen years later, investigators stopped Blackwelder at Orlando International Airport, fresh off a flight from Bogota, Colombia and seized his iPhone.

Investigators said WhatsApp conversations revealed that between January and May of this year, he "knowingly imported 30,000 tramadol pills from Singapore" and "distributed those pills via 164 United States Parcel Service deliveries to 77 customers in 30 states."

The estimated value of the pills is "between $300,000 and $450,000," the reports shows.

Neighbors were shocked to hear about Blackwelder's arrest.

"I would've never guessed it from him," said Stephanie Addison.

Blackwelder posted bond but won't be released until a hold is cleared.

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